bossier



(lio Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

v. BESSIER.

, FIRE ESCAPE. No. 295,477... i Patented Mai; 18, 1884 nwE/vrw; W M

/1 fforney N. PETERS, PIInIwLiflwgrAphen Walhinglmh D. c.

2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

3 (No Model.)

V. BESSIER.

FIRE ESCAPE.

Patented Mar. 18, 1884.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIA WITNESSES N. FEIER& vmmmu m m. Wanllington. n, c.

nib-(ZZZ whom it may concern. l

SPECIFIGATIQN forming 'rnL pressure, or nnw ronmn; YL, gss renon oF1on1iHAnF TdH l "A. RoBBINs, or.premieresgramm ,or comma.

- -E- SQAPE- a of; Letters Baizfif No. 295,%-77;, dated March 18,1884;

' Application fiIed December'Q O, 1883 (Nomodelo Be it known that I,VETAL BEssIER, of the city, county, and State of New York, have i I"invented an Improved Fire-Escape; and I do hereby declare that thefollowing is a full and exact description thereof, reference being hadto the accompanying. drawings, making part of this specification.

' Myinvention belongs to the class of ladderescapes and to the subclassof folding ladders,

and the ladder is especially adapted to the balconies of buildings, orto platforms or landings on buildings serving a similar purpose.

One feature of my invention is the ladder folded closely into a frame,so that the ladder and frame form' a complete door, which fillsl thehatchway of the balcony, being hinged to or at one side thereof,wherebythe upper end [of :the ladder is constantly supported, and

when the dooris unfastened in the hatchway the ladder descends by itsownweight. till it reaches the next lower balconyor the ground.

- Another feature of inventiontconsists. in

the. peculiar construction of the foldingladder, adapting it to befolded into the frame. Other points of invention consist in the meansfor letting down each ladder by oper- -b uilding near the ground, andfrom positions. 3

atinga mechanism from the outside of the inside of the building; also,in the connection of an alarm withthe said mechanism.

. In the accompanying-drawings, Figurel represents the front of a houseor building rovided with my improved folding ladders applied to thebalconies thereof; Fig. 2, a vertical section of lthefront of thebuilding from front to rear, showing the. ladders tapplied ,thereto;Fig. 3, a partialhorizontal section of the building-wall and top View ofone of the balconies containing theladder folded therein as a door;Figs. 4 and 5, views showing .the. construction of the. folding ladder;

Figs. .6 and 7, views showing a modified con- 1 struction of the foldingladder; Figs. 8 and 9,

,views showinganother modification of .the

constructionof the folding ladder; Figs. 10

. and. 11, views ofthe ladder-frame ;.Fig. 12, a View showing mea'nsforholding up and letlting down the ladder; Fig. 13, aview showing an alarmattachment and means for connecting it with the means for lettingdownthe ladder or ladders. Y

Like letters designate corresponding parts .in all of thefigures.

-I ;--have represented in the accompanying drawings simple means forcarrying out all :the features of my invention. 'front of a three-storyhouse, the second and third stories being respectively provided with Ishow the balconies AB. 7 A folding ladder, Gyis shown located in thelower balcony, for descending from the said balconyto the ground, and afolding 1adder, D, connected with the upper balcony, for descending fromthat balcony to thelo wer balcony: For clearness of illustration, I-hayeshown the upper ladder let down fornse, and the lower ladderfolded upand locked in the hatchway of the balcony-floor; butit is-to beunderstood that all the ladders of the building are or may be held up:at the same time and let down simultaneously.

'Inthe description of the invention-I will first'specify the peculiarconstruction of the ladderitself. The essential feature of this invention -is the combination of a seriesof rounds on rungs/"c a, and aseriesof con -nectinglinksor rods, 12 b, pivoted to the ends oftherounds and together in pairs, and adaptedtobe'folded entirely behindorwithin the rounds, so that when the rounds andlinks are thus foldedtogether they occupy no more aroomin the longitudinal direction ofthejladderthan the simple aggregate \YidthSgOf the rounds,iwhich thusbeing arranged closely side by side .and he1din. a frame, E, form aclose 'trap fidoor, filling the hatchway in the balconyiiloor, as shownin Fig. 3. Thereby a safeand .unobjectionable continuation of .thelbalconyfioorois formed, and the door itself and the hatchway are madeassmallas .prac- ,ticable. H.

. In the specific construction of the ladder to produce the effect aboveset forth various means or modifications thereof may be adopted. .I willdescribe two or three modes of construction. Thus, according to. theconstruction. shown in Figs. 4 andb, each round .is formedoft wo.metallic .plates, .a a, one in front of .theother, and the ends of thecontiguous links above and below the round at each than the length ofthe several rounds.

end thereof are lapped one over the other and between the ends of theround-plates, so that a single pivot-pin, c, is passed through all thefour parts, leaving sufficient width of space between the front and backplates of the round for the two links to fold in between them, as shownin Fig. 5. This is the same at each end of the round. Then the upperlink of one round and the lower link of the round above are lapped overeach other and connected by a pivot, 61, and this also at each end ofthe round, as shown; and. in order that the links may fold entirelybehind the front roundplate, the two connected links at one end of theround must not extend beyond the middle of each round, in order not toquite meet the links at the other end of the rounds. Thus it will beobserved that the distance between the rounds, when the ladder isunfolded, is practically a little less, and might be much less, Theremay be a stay-bolt, 0, connecting the middle of each pair of plates a a,composing each round, to keep them firmly in proper relative positionsand at a proper distance from each other. The rounds andconnecting-links may be made of metallic plates, and may be quite thinand light, especially when made of sheet-steel. A somewhat lighterconstruction is shown in Figs. 6 and 7. Here a single plate to formseach round. The links I) b are the same as in Figs. 4 and 5, and themanner of pivoting them together and to the rounds is the same asdescribed for the construction shown in those figures. In Figs. 8 and 9I also show singleplate rounds a a, but double-plate links b b alternatewith single-plate links, as shown. The mode of pivoting together and tothe rounds is the same as above described.

Now, as to the ladder-frame E, (shown in Figs. 3, 10, and 11,) it iscomposed of three sides, f g g, which may most conveniently be formed ofa single bar of metal bent to form three sides of a rectangle, as shown.One, or preferably two, cross-bars, h h, are secured to the frame nextto the middle side, f, corre sponding to or forming one round of theladder, and from this the remainder of the ladder is suspended. Then therounds are formed of two plates, as shown in Figs. 4 and 5, they projecta little beyond the links b b at the ends, so as to embrace longitudinalribs 2' i, secured to or formed with the sides g g of the frame, asshown in Fig. 10, and by this means the ends of all the rounds areretained and supported in the frame when the latter is in a horizontalposition in the hatehway, but ready to slide out of the frame when thesaid frame is swung down from the hatehway. When single plates a a areused to form the ladderrounds, there are grooves or waysi i in the innersurface of the sides 9 g of the frame, as shown in Fig. 11, for theprojecting ends of the rounds to run and be supported in. The frame E ishinged at one side of the hatchway, and it is best to hinge or pivot itto or at the side next to the wall of the building, as

shown in Fig. 3, for the purpose of allowing the ladder to hang down infront of and near to the wall of the building.

There may be employed a series of proparms, each succeeding lower armbeing a l1ttle longer than the one above, as shown in Fig. 2, wherebythe ladder is held farther from the wall at the lower than at the upperend, and gradually increases in distance from the top to the bottom.This construction renders the descent on the ladder much more convenientand safe than if the stays were all of equal length. These stays orprops are conveniently made by bending back the ends of the back platesof the ladder-rounds, made long enough for the purpose, or when therounds are madg of single plates those are made long enough to be bentback and form the stays.

For securing the ladder and its frame in the hatehway of a balcony orsimilar floor orlanding various devices may be adopted. Ihave shown inFig. 1.2 a simple means for the purpose. The lower round of the laddermay be made of a single plate bent at the lower edges to form two sidesand a bottom, k, and in this bottom part a slot or hole, I, is formed.Into this slot the-catch m of a lever, G, enters, to sustain that sideof the combined ladder and frame composing the hatehway-door. If simplytwo flat plates form the lower round of the ladder, the catch m entersbetween them. If

a single plate forms the lower round of the ladder, the catch in swingsunder it. The lever G is pivoted, and has a horizontal swinging movementin or under the balcony-floor for allowing its catch an to sustain orset free theladder in the hatehway. WVith this lever (or its equivalent)any suitable mechanism or device may be employed for setting free ortripping the ladder from any point or position desired. In Fig. 12 Ishow a rod, H, pivoted at n to the end of the lever opposite to thecatch m, and extending thence inward in or under the balcony-fioor, andthrough the wall to a hall or room in the building, and terminating witha knob or handle, 0, by which to draw the rod inward for trippingtheladder. The rod may be moved outward for fastening up the ladder by acounter-spring. Any desired number and arrangement of such trippingdevices may be employed leading to different rooms or positions, andthey may be secured in any desired way, so that they may not beunnecessarily tampered with or accidentally moved.

One other connection with the ladders I deem to be importantnamely, toreach to the lower part of a building, so as to be accessible to afireman or other person in the street or outside of the building, forletting down theladders, in case that the inmates of the building do notor cannot let the ladders down in the event of a fire or other casualty.I have shown a means of accomplishing this in Figs. 2 and 12. The

knob or pull 1), Fig. 2, is housed in a suitable box or recess, I, and arod, wire, or cord, q,

295,477 r l a extends therefrom up to a bell-crank r, pivoted to asupport in such a position that the other arm of the bell-crank isconnected with the rod H, so that pulling down on this rod, wire, orcord will draw the said rod Hinward and trip the ladder. The rod, wire,or cord (1 is, or should preferably, be connected with all the rods Hfor the several ladders, where more than one is used, or wherethere arethree or more stories in'the building.

It is also desirable toconnect with the lad der-tripping mechanism abell or suitable alarm, not only to warn all inmates when the laddersare let down to escape by, butalso to warn them in case burglarsor otherimproper persons tamper with the ladders. I have shown in Figs. 2 and 13such an alarm connected with the tripping-rod H. From the bell-crank r arod, 8, extends upward to another bell-crank, t, to which a horizontalrod, u, is pivoted. On the end of the rod u is a stop or catch, 1;,which holds a catch-pin, w, on the periphery of apulley-wheel, J, on thepulley or shaft of which is wound a cord, 1 bearing a weight, K. An arm,00, on this wheel is arranged to strike the outer end of a pivotedhammer-lever, 3 bear ing a hammer, z, which strikes a bell, L, after theouter end of the hammer-lever has been depressed and then set free bythe arm m at each revolution of the wheel J. When the ladder is held inthe hatchway of the balcony by the catch m of the lever G, the stop 1)holds against the catch-pin wand prevents the turning of the wheel; butwhen the rod H is drawn in to trip the ladder the stopo is drawn awayfrom the catch-pin w and allows the bell to be sounded. After the alarmhas at any time been sounded, the weightcord 3 is again wound upon thewheel pulley or shaft, ready to sound another alarm. ThusI show one wayof conneoting an alarm with the ladder-tripping mechanism. I claim as myinvention 7 1. A ladder, G, constructed to fold with its rounds side byside, and contained in a frame, E, in combination with the hatchway of abal cony-floor or other landing, whereby the said folded ladder and itsframe form a close door or more positions inside of the building, subifstantially as and for the purpose herein specified.

' 4. The combination of a folding ladder, C, hinged in a balcony orlanding hatchway, a sustaining lever or holder, G, a trip-rod, H, a

tripping-pull, p, accessible near the ground outside of the building,and mechanism connecting the said pull and trip-rod, substantially asand for the purpose set forth.

5. The combination of a foldingladder, O, hinged in a balcony or landinghatchway, a sustaining lever or holder, G, tripping mechanism H, analarm, L, and mechanism connecting the alarm with the trippingmechanism, for the purpose herein specified.

VETAL BESSIER.

Witnesses:

N10 NARVESEN, GEo. H. BOEMPER.

